Executive searches, crime

August 18, 2011

Back in mid-June, though pleased to have read SUNY New Paltz had finally selected a new president, I had been simultaneously saddened to have learned $100,000 had been blown in the process. From where had that money come and how was it spent? In the wake of Mamie Golladay’s departure from her post as president of SUNY Sullivan, I’d hope the task of searching for someone to replace her will be prudently monitored to prevent ill-fated history from repeating itself.

Regardless of whether a posted position is for the local library director, public school administrator, director of Cornell Cooperative Extension, or the president of a state university, wining/dining candidates in royal fashion should not be a prerequisite to determining who is best suited for the job. In fact, refraining from doing so may help reduce the frequency of situations whereby new hires do an about-face after but a few days behind their desks.

On another local note, given the high incidence of serious crime plaguing Sullivan County, I’d hope our lawmakers would push to have the county designated by the federal government as a “High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area,” as recently was the case with neighboring Orange County. Sullivan so designated would mean state and federal law enforcement would team up with local police and the sheriff’s department to combat violent, often drug- and/or gang-related crime here.